1. Field of the Disclosure
This application relates generally to lawn maintenance vehicles, and more specifically to lawn maintenance vehicles including caster wheels.
2. Description of Related Art
Many lawn maintenance vehicles, such as zero-turn riding mowers include caster wheels. Many of the currently available mowers include caster wheel assemblies that have no flexible suspension. During normal operation, the wheeled lawn maintenance vehicle may be driven over surfaces having irregularities, and/or small obstacles. As the front casters pass over the irregularities and/or small obstacles, potentially jarring movement of vertical translation of the casters is often passed directly to the frame of the wheeled lawn maintenance vehicle and the driver. The lack of flexible suspension between the casters and the frame of the lawn maintenance vehicle can cause a jarring ride for the operator.
Furthermore, some caster wheel assemblies include a flexible suspension element, such as a spring, oriented in a generally vertical direction. Such spring orientations can cause a slight but significant series of bounces in the lawn maintenance vehicle which causes an undesired sinusoidal variation in the cut elevation of the lawn maintenance vehicle cutting blades. Accordingly, improvements to lawn maintenance vehicle caster wheels are desired.